> It all comes back to the old basic thing: there are regulations in place
> that create an artificial market that can be manipulated in certain ways. A
> bit to do with secrets, a bit to do with human nature, a bit to do with
> regulatory stupidity. That and people with power will always be people with
> power. No great shock.

Very well put. That covers all the special cases I had in mind
and many others besides. I will check out your reference.

> -----Original Message-----
>> >> Ahem, I'm not getting the idea across. Choosing with
>> >> 'dollar-votes' is libertarian-speak for free choice
>> >> made through purchasing power.
>> >
>> > But before people go shopping with their wads of money
>> > grasped firmly in their fists, somebody, somewhere
>> > decides CEOs' salaries. Somebody, somewhere decides
>> > that sanitation workers (who perform an important
>> > function for our society) receive a lot less money
>> > than physicians (who also perform an important function
>> > for our society).
>>
>> The CEOs' salaries are determined by the board of directors,
>> composed of people acting in their own self-interest. The
>> salaries of sanitation workers should be decided by the
>> market, in the sense that the jobs should be offered to
>> whatever people competant to take them who'll work for the
>> least. (That's how my job is; if I'd asked for too much
>> money, my job would instead have gone to someone almost as
>> competant, but who'd work for less.) Now labor unions do
>> complicate things: they get a lock on jobs, and won't let
>> other potential workers come in who'd do the job for less.
>> Physician salaries are also market driven, except that the
>> doctors have gotten together and used the power of government
>> (force, remember) to prevent anyone from practicing medicine
>> that they don't approve of.
>
> There's a good article in a recent Fortune on this topic:
>
> http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=202914>
> It all comes back to the old basic thing: there are regulations in place
> that create an artificial market that can be manipulated in certain ways. A
> bit to do with secrets, a bit to do with human nature, a bit to do with
> regulatory stupidity. That and people with power will always be people with
> power. No great shock.
>
> Reason
> http://www.exratio.com/